Magic: The Gathering Arena, also called MTG Arena, Magic Arena, and MTGA, is a digital Magic game, created under the umbrella of Magic Digital Next by the Digital Games Studio. Though it is stated that is it not considered to be the successor of Magic Duels,[1] it fills the same product space. The game exists independently from Magic Online. It is currently under open beta development. The closed beta kickoff happened on December 4, 2017.

First mentioned on August 3, 2017,[2] its reveal was on September 7, 2017.[3] The sound effects, colors, and overall design of the battlefield are similar to the competing Hearthstone video game. MTG Arena would be available to download with no fee and is a free-to-play game. Players looking to enhance their game experience will have the opportunity to do so through play rewards and in-game purchases, but purchases are not required to access the full depth of authentic Magic gameplay.

Unlike Magic Online, MTG Arena will only focus on the newest cards and game modes. It will feature the full card sets in Standard, with around 1,000 new cards added every year. Wizards of the Coast is exploring opportunities to connect real-world in-store play with digital play—for instance, giving rewards in MTG Arena for attending a Prerelease.[4]

Free-to-play mode; single-game matches. Players start at Beginner rank and advance from Bronze to Diamond (each containing four tiers) and end at Masters. Mulligans appear the same as usual, except "the system draws an opening hand from each of two separately randomized copies of the decks, and leans towards giving the player the hand with the mix of spells and lands (without regard for color) closest to average for that deck".[10]

Players make 40+ card decks and keep all drafted cards. Deck construction and drafting times aren't limited, and players draft vs. AI opponents with picks derived from MTGO data. When sign-up time is over, there's an additional 2 hours time to finish matches. After draft match window closes players get rewards according to their win record.[11] Draft has its own rank system. Match results affect limited rank.

Entry fee: 1,500 gems. Best-of-three matches with sideboarding; run ends after five wins or two losses. Format changes less often than the Quick Draft and is typically the most recent expansion on sale. Match results affect limited rank. Rewards based on total wins are:

When you launch the game, you will automatically be taken to the first of a series of new tutorial games.[14] These short games will review the basics of playing Magic: The Gathering Arena as you battle against different computer-controlled opponents.

To facilitate the creation of the NPE and to transition players smoothly into the normal play experience the designers introduced some MTG Arena exclusive cards (). This set also contains some "reprinted" cards from former sets. Some of the white cards are accessible to players, and Standard-legal for MTG Arena (marked with ).[14] The rest are tutorial-only (marked with ).

The following list does not contain a card that is already printed in paper Magic unless it's Standard-legal only for MTG Arena.

A player can build up to 30 decks(60 in the future[15]) with 60 to 250 cards, including the preconstructed decks (though those can be deleted), and choose one of them for Ranked or QuickConstructed modes. Filters allow searching by rarity, color, type, and ownership; it is also possible to sort by set using the search bar by typing "e:SET_ID", with the SET_IDs being the following: XLN for Ixalan, RIX for Rivals of Ixalan, DAR for Dominaria, M19 for Core Set 2019 and GRN for Guilds of Ravnica.[16] Specific basic lands can be found by writing the land name in the search box (e.g. "Island") and pressing Reset in Advanced Filters menu.

Booster packs are eight-card boosters containing five commons, two uncommons, and one rare or mythic rare.[17] Single pack costs 1,000 gold or 200 gems through bundles. Packs can be purchased for gems in bundles of three, six, 15, 45, and 90. Rare Wildcards are guaranteed every six packs and mythic Wildcards every 30 packs. 45 and 90 pack bundles of Dominaria also contain Firesong and Sunspeaker, similar to Buy-a-Box-only addition for paper release. Core Set 2019 includes the Nexus of Fate in the 45 and 90 pack bundles, one and two copies respectively. Guilds of Ravnica contain the Impervious Greatwurm in the 45 and 90 pack bundles, one and two copies respectively. Custom pack amount can't be bought. Purchasing via gold requires no confirmation. Booster packs don't contain welcome deck cards.

Three packs per week (one for every five wins) are rewarded through a weekly quest. The weekly quest resets Sunday early morning. Those packs won't have banned cards inside.[19]

Draft packs will contain 14 cards mirroring tabletop drafts (the basic land has been removed).[17] Drafting will also add cards to your collection, as any card you draft will be automatically added to your collection.

Individual cards planned to be earnable through play.[17] Wizards of the Coast tested a system where for every match win, players will receive one card, up to 30 per day, but switched economy to higher daily gold rewards. The newest system gives out up to six per day, alternating with gold, after the fourth daily win.

Wildcards are special cards that have a chance to appear in the place of each card at any rarity in every booster you open.[17] Wildcards have their own rarity of common, uncommon, rare, and mythic rare. Wildcards can also be received through opening the Vault. You can redeem a Wildcard one-to-one for any card at that same rarity.

When you would collect a fifth copy (or more) of a card, you earn Vault progress instead of adding that card to your collection. The current contents of the Vault are:

Three uncommon Wildcards

Two rare Wildcards

One mythic rare Wildcard

Beginning in April 2018, players earned 3.3% Vault progress for each eight-card booster pack they open. As of July 2018, you no longer earn Vault progress for opening packs.[20] Every time you get the fifth copy of a card will earn you progress towards your next vault opening:[18]

Mythic — 1.1%

Rare — 0.5%

Uncommon — 0.3%

Common — 0.1%

Opening the Vault requires getting duplicates through packs/drafting: 900 common, 300 uncommon, 180 rare, or 90 mythic rares duplicates. Duplicates progress define value of one mythic = two rare = 3.3 uncommon = ten common duplicate cards. Therefore, the value of a single Vault with one mythic, two rare, and three uncommon Wildcards is equal to three mythic Wildcards. That way a single Wildcard of any rarity equals 30 duplicates of the same rarity.

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